The Giants' co-aces, so adored here in the Bay Area, bolting for greener, more potent pastures where run support arrives by the bushel.

Cain and Lincecum have endured systemically poor support over their careers. No major league pitcher has worked with fewer runs per start than Cain since his first full season in 2006. And Lincecum? The Giants haven't scored a run in 10 of his 26 outings this season -- including a 1-0 loss at Atlanta last Thursday.

"Shoot, Timmy could be 20-3 with the Yankees," Giants first baseman Aubrey Huff said earlier this month. "You can only imagine what they'd do if they had a nice lead."

You can only imagine how long they can stand it -- even if they continue to say all the right things after their starts. As infielder Mark DeRosa expressed it in Houston this past weekend, "Our pitching staff is entirely too good and they're being entirely too nice to us, to be honest."

Cain is under contract through 2012. Lincecum has two more arbitration years remaining before he hits the open market following the 2013 season.

Both aces say it's far, far too early to start lining up possibilities. Instead, they say they love being part of the Giants organization and they'd prefer to stay in one place their entire careers. As for the Dust Bowl environment? Instead of choking them back, it has encouraged their growth as pitchers.

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"It's easy to say what it would be like with another team," Lincecum said. "But being on a team like this, with everybody playing for one another, you just strive to be better. You see guys buckling down against us. We've got to do the same thing and rise to the occasion.

"That's how I've always looked at it. I've never been one to point the finger. I've always looked at myself and criticized myself first, and that's the way I'm always gonna be."

Will Lincecum always want to be a Giant?

"That would be ideal," he said. "I have a comfort level here. I'm with this team for a couple years after this, so we'll see what happens. I can't make choices now about what will happen in three years.

Although their records don't indicate it, the Giants have to feel good about sending Cain and Lincecum to face the San Diego Padres on Tuesday and Wednesday as they open an important, 12-game homestand.

Lincecum is 11-10 despite a 2.53 ERA that ranks third in the National League. Cain is 10-9 with a 2.86 ERA that ranks ninth in the N.L. And then there is Cain's 67-71 career record, which is criminally unfair considering his 122 quality starts since 2006 are the fifth most in the majors.

Nobody has practiced stoicism in the face of notepads and microphones more than Cain. But he acknowledged there's more going on underneath his serene surface.

"I mean it does, sure, it gets frustrating at times when you feel you pitched good and the team loses," said Cain, who has received one run or less in 12 of his 26 starts. "I think ultimately, really, it's helped a lot. It built me and a lot of guys into who we're going to be in the future.

"It's nice to pitch with a big lead, but that's not the way it's going to be every time, no matter what team you're on. So you learn to compete in those games."

Cain was unyielding in the postseason last year, when he didn't allow an earned run in three starts. And Lincecum, during the division series opener against Atlanta last season, buckled down for a two-hit, 14-strikeout performance. He needed to be that good to win 1-0.

Lincecum ended up on the wrong side of his last 1-0 game against the Braves last Thursday, and although he blamed himself for making a mistake that Chipper Jones clocked out of the park, cameras caught him in the dugout looking royally ticked in the ninth inning.

"No, you don't feel good about it," said Lincecum, who has a 1.13 ERA in seven assignments since the All-Star break, but just a 4-3 record over that span. "Nobody wants to lose. But I don't care what my win-loss record is. At the end of the day, I don't look at it."

It would be nice if he didn't have to answer questions about it, though.

"That part, you get tired of," Lincecum said. "You can't just say, 'It's not my fault. It's the team's fault or the hitters' fault.' Like Cainer and I always say, it's 'Why didn't I just pitch better?'

"You don't go out with the pressure that you've gotta be perfect. It's more, 'I know I'm capable of throwing a shutout, so I should probably strive for that every time I go out. And if I don't, I then I bite myself in the ass, not everybody else.' "